HAWAIIAN GARDENS - Almost 1,400 law enforcement officials converged on Hawaiian Gardens in a series of pre-dawn raids Thursday as part of the largest federal indictment against a street gang in United States history.

Varrio Hawaiian Gardens, Hawaiian Gardens' oldest and most notorious gang, waged a racist campaign to eliminate black people from the community via attempted murders and other crimes, according to the federal racketeering indictments that werei unsealed Thursday.

A total of five indictments charged 147 members and associates of the gang, and federal, state and local law enforcement officials had arrested 88 people as of Thursday morning, U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien said.

Included in that plot was the murder of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Jerry Ortiz, who was shot in the head in June of 2005 by a VHG member while Ortiz was investigating the attempted murder of a black man in the city, O'Brien said.

It was the cowardly slaughter of Ortiz - a newlywed and father of two sons - that prompted investigators from the LA County Sheriff's Department to the FBI to launch the nearly four-year investigation into the gang, which culminated in Thursday's indictments and a wave of arrests, dubbed "Operation Knockout," O'Brien said.

"Operation Knockout has put a serious dent in this violent criminal enterprise," said Assistant Los Angeles County Sheriff Paul Tanaka.

Tanaka spoke on behalf of Sheriff Lee Baca and the members of the Sheriff's Department as well as the family of Ortiz. As Tanaka spoke, members of the Lakewood Sheriff's Station's Gang unit, which Ortiz had been assigned to, stood close by.

Although none of Ortiz's family was at the media conference, his widow - Chela Ortiz - attended a briefing at the command center early Thursday morning, said Cmdr. David Fender, who was the captain of the Lakewood Station at the time of Ortiz's murder.

"She was there at the command post and very interested in what was going on," Fender said. "I think (taking part in the operation) is almost like having some closure on this part of her life."

Range of offenses

The indictments detail attempted murder, kidnapping, firearms, narcotics and other charges related to attacks by the gang, which is predominantly Latino and mainly operates in the little hamlet of Hawaiian Gardens, a city of about 15,000 that measures roughly one square mile.

"City leaders in Hawaiian Gardens support Operation Knockout," Hawaiian Gardens Mayor Michael Gomez said. "Honest residents should not have to live in fear of lawless thugs who act like it's high noon at the OK Corral."

O'Brien said the gang is alleged to have roughly 1,000 members or associates who have dominated the city, making life hell for the majority of residents.

The indictments charge the gang not only operates in the usual criminal acts, including murder, attempted murder, assaults and drug and weapons trafficking, VHG has also waged a campaign of terror specifically against black members of the community.

"(Varrio Hawaiian Gardens) gang members take pride in their racism and often refer to the VHG Gang as the 'Hate Gang,"' the main indictment states. "VHG gang members have expressed a desire to rid the city of Hawaiian Gardens of all African-Americans and have engaged in a systematic effort to achieve that result by perpetrating crimes against African-Americans."

Gang experts and investigators testified at length about that subject in the 2007 trial for the killing of Deputy Ortiz, detailing the gang's long-standing hatred of African-Americans.

Jose Luis Orozco was convicted of Ortiz's murder.

During the sentencing, the judge noted the 29-year-old gang member not only killed the deputy while hiding outside of the lawman's view behind a door, but Orozco also allegedly tried to kill another man, who was black, just a few days earlier by shooting that individual in the back twice.

Ortiz had been investigating the attempted murder when he was gunned down. The attempted murder victim was targeted by Orozco simply because of his race after he was seen working in the yard of a Hawaiian Gardens home, witnesses said.

Orozco also boasted prior to Ortiz's killing that he wanted to kill a cop and make a name for his gang, Norwalk Superior Court Judge Philip Hickok said during Orozco's 2007 sentencing.

"The murder was committed without regard in front of two extremely impressionable and young girls," Hickok said, referring to the star witnesses in the killing of the deputy, two sisters - 8- and 10-year-old girls - who described the shooting for the jury.

"(Orozco) arranged to have witnesses, including those two very young girls, killed so that they would not testify," Hickok said.

Orozco is awaiting execution on death row.

In the indictments released against his fellow gang members Thursday, federal authorities allege a string of attacks on black residents, including a shooting into a home with eight people inside. The document did not say if anyone was hit in the attack.

In another instance, two gang members allegedly chased a black man, yelled a racist epithet at him and then beat him with a garden rake. The same man was later repeatedly stabbed by two gang members, according to the indictment, which charges them with his attempted murder.

Next to the podium where O'Brien and law enforcement officials stood were two large tables covered with dozens of firearms, ranging from small snub-nosed revolvers to automatic rifles, seized during the investigation.

"These firearms are only some of the weapons we have seized," said John A. Torres, special agent in charge for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

"They have come from out-of-state ... many of them specially from Arizona," Torres said, holding a Bullpup rifle - an automatic rifle designed to be light and maneuverable - aloft for the crowd of 200 media and law enforcement members to see.

In addition to the guns, deputies, officers and agents seized multiple kilos of cocaine, methamphetamines and heroin. They also found cash -- at one location discovering $25,000 -- and other contraband, authorities said.

Mexican connection

The investigation not only uncovered the gang's activities, it revealed the gang's strong ties to the Mexican Mafia - a Southern California prison gang - and to Mexican drug cartels, said FBI Assistant Director in Charge Salvador Hernandez.

Ties to Mexico were also found among some of those arrested Thursday who were living in the U.S. illegally after being deported, many of them for violent crimes including murder, said Special Agent in Charge Kevin Kozak, who is part of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit.

"(Some) are now facing life terms in federal prison," Kozak said.

O'Brien also noted everyone named in the indictments are facing lengthy terms in federal prisons, which require inmates to serve at least 85 percent of their sentence before being deemed eligible for parole.

While the state of California has announced it must continue to parole a number of inmates early due to budget constraints, such will not be the case with these indictments, O'Brien added.

"We don't have that problem in federal court," he said.

The indictments mark at least the second time in less than two years that federal authorities have accused Latino gang members of attacking black residents because of their race.

The indictments also mark the single largest "gang takedown in U.S. history," O'Brien said, noting the second-largest indictment ever released was by him for a Los Angeles gang less than two years ago.

Of the 88 people arrested Thursday, 63 were named in the indictments and another 25 were arrested on probable cause charges during the operation. An additional 35 people named in the indictment were already in custody and more arrests are expected to come, O'Brien said.

"If you think we're gone today at the end of this press conference, we're not gone," O'Brien vowed in a booming voice. "We're never going to be gone."